LEK

This is going to be disappointing for everyone, but I have not yet seen Karate Kid III...(sigh)...

My first week at work has been pretty intense. Not intense, like, I worked 80 hours...intense, like, I realized that there is a very steep learning curve. We (the 8 interns in the US offices) spent the entire week in presentations. We learned about things like ethics, strategy, powerpoint, excel, research tools, etc. While I got a bit fidgety sitting in the same chair all week, it really was great to learn so much is such a short amount of time. Plus, we had activities just about every single day after work...enough to wear us out but tons of fun. Rachel already mentioned a couple of the dinners we went to in her blogs. In addition, Friday a limo came to pick the interns up from work and we went to a place on the beach front called the Lobster for lunch. I had some crab enchiladas that were amazing.

All-in-all I'd say I'm pleased and very excited to be here. LEK is everything I want it to be socially (that is to say, I get along with the people there pretty well, but I still feel like it's a work environment), in terms of an opportunity to learn/grow, and in the underlying features of its business model. The cases they take on are generally very short - from 2 week "grenades" (P.E. due diligence cases that require intense hours) to about 8 week cases. Some people who have been there only a couple of years have worked on more than 50 cases. I can't imagine a faster way to learn so much about so many different industries than to be studying them intensely for 2-8 week periods each. In addition, LEK does virtually no implementation work. Although this means that I don't get the kind of interactions with management that I would at other places, it also means virtually no traveling. If there were an LEK Dallas I think I'd be in heaven.

What's surprised me, above all else, since I got here has been the frequent interaction of the partners with the interns. I've met and listened to presentations from more than half a dozen, several of which flew in from different offices to meet with us. I sat in on a case team meeting the other day (a meeting where a team meets with the partners to present their findings and to get further direction). There were two partners in the meeting. Without myself and the other intern sitting in on the meeting, I think it would have taken 5-10 minutes. With us there, the meeting took over 30 minutes. Both partners stopped frequently to explain what was going on and to give insight as to how they do things at LEK. It was really sweet. I'll leave it at that.